1100pm
Tuesday Storm Summary… Things unfolded pretty much as advertised. The snowfall ranges and specific city/town snowfall amount forecasts verified nicely. The amounts on the list were all within 2 inches, and several of them verified right on. I’m proud of those numbers, given that it was not quite what Harvey was forecasting (I had to go higher based on what I was looking at) and because I underestimated the snow amounts on the last 2 significant storms. But enough of that. The main area of precipitation, which was mostly rain and freezing rain tonight, has moved out, leaving drizzle & freezing drizzle behind. Most of the icing continues to occur in the 495 belt into southern NH. The drizzle will come to an end as the night goes on, but temperatures not far from freezing over most of the region will result in some continued slick spots, which will also be the case as we head into the early morning of Wednesday.
Wednesday snow? … Yes, I believe we are going to see a period of snow Wednesday afternoon. A small but potent area of energy will be moving across the region from west to east, and should be enough to trigger numerous snow showers or even a general area of snow, which could fall at a moderate clip for a time. The most likely time to see this will be after 1pm into the early evening hours (7pm or 8pm). Accumulations of 1/2 to locally 2 inches can be expected.
Wednesday night & Thursday tranquility… The disturbance is out of here, and high pressure builds in with cold & dry weather. Like Monday, sunshine will dominate Thursday, but some high clouds will be showing up from the southwest later in the day. Unlike Monday, it will not be quite as cold, with high temps topping off near freezing, some 10 degrees warmer than those of Monday.
Thursday night & Friday storm threat… With a couple days go to before this event, there is still some uncertainty. Some of the computer models have hinted at a quick-hitting but rather significant snowfall, while a couple other fairly reliable ones have taken the system on a faster, more southerly track, with lighter snow. The certainty is that it will be quite cold Thursday night (low in the teens) and Friday (high in the 20s). My feeling right now is that we will see a period of snow during the day on Friday, with the potential for a few to several inches of fluff. I’ll fine-tune this as we get closer.
Weekend cold blast… Arctic air will flow in behind whatever storm we get on Friday, making the weekend bright but very cold! Low temps will probably fall below 10 in most areas for Saturday & Sunday morning, with a few below zero readings possible. Daytime highs will barely make 20 Saturday along with some gusty wind which will make it feel even colder. It will remain quite cold through Sunday, with high temps again well below freezing. Just one note for Sunday… There may be a very small wave of low pressure that presents a slight threat of snow for a portion of southern New England at some point Sunday or Sunday evening … just something to keep in mind as you won’t see that on anybody’s forecasts right now.
More storms & cold? … I don’t have a great feel on the storm threat(s) for the last week of January, but I am fairly confident we will see at least 1 if not 2 more shots of very cold air, especially toward the final few days of the month.